Fundraising Auctions

Live Auction

In live fundraising auctions, all your participants gather in one location. One person acts as the auctioneer and items are auctioned one at a time until all are sold. You can enlist a professional auctioneer; many will donate their services to your organization, or have an outgoing person act as auctioneer and master of ceremonies.

Let your membership know what you are looking for in donations. Do you only want antiques, jewelry, or any like new item? Maybe you want to mix it up and take new and used items. Try “Celebrity Fundraising Auctions”, have local personalities donate items. The Mayor, a TV personality, or President of the Rotary Club, and attach their name to the item. For example, you could advertise the item as “A leather jacket worn by Jack Frost, weatherman for channel 9 & 10“. You might want your “Celebrities” to show up and sign autographs.

Your donors already know why they are there, to contribute money to your organization. They do expect something in return but not necessarily merchandise. A fun filled evening and superbly done food should be worth the price of admission. In a live auction, the auction is the entertainment.

You need to consider who will be your auction participants to come up with the right mix of auction items. We attend a 4-H fundraising auction where the kids sell their 4-H projects namely cows, pigs, lambs and poultry. To raise money for the livestock council they also sell donated items such as homemade pies, cans of peanuts and cashews, honey and maple syrup. I have never seen peanuts (the small $3.59 size that you get from the grocery) sell for less than $50.00. They usually go for $150 to $300. You do not even want to know what the pies sell for. My point here is they could just as easily auction off used shovels. It is not about the merchandise, but the organization that it benefits.

Turn your auction into the social event of the season. Charge an entrance fee, this will not be feasible for every charity auction but will work for many. If you are serving food, you are more apt to charge admission.

Pre-sell tickets and use this money to cover the cost of food, and beverages. Come up with a theme and use it to determine your menu and decorations. Your food does not need to be extensive. Finger foods are usually adequate. Just make sure your participants know what to expect in advance.

Upon arrival, you need to register your bidders. Keep it simple, take names and phone numbers, or names, address and phone numbers (if you want to create a mailing list) and link them to the bidder number you issue them. Bidder numbers are usually made from poster board with a number large enough for the auctioneer to see. This allows the records keepers to keep everyone’s purchases separate. At the end of the auction, you can add up all the purchases for each bidder number and have an invoice ready.

It might be easiest to make a list of items to be auctioned and make notation of the high bidder and price on the master list. You may want to print out a program with the items listed for bidders to see what is coming up and keep track of their purchases.

Announce auction rules and procedures prior to the start of the auction. It is also a good idea to print them in your program. Let people know what method of payment you will accept. People will spend more if you take credit cards.

A live fundraising auction is a great way to turn recycled items into cash for your organization. It is entertaining and easy to do. Who knows, you may want to make it an annual event.

Lets leave Live Fundraising Auctions and return to Fundraisers

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